Raif Story #SciFi #novel update: Spoilers Ahead! http://bit.ly/MMM-Goodreads Add it to ur #Goodreads Shelf today

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to post a little update as we close in on the date when I might fall silent for while again. I've been working like mad on the opener of the book, the part I didn't have written at all, and it's blossomed into the whole first third of the story. It's flowing incredibly well and I really wish I didn't have to go work a day job or find a new place to live or do any of that "life" stuff that is going to make me have to STOP WRITING. It hurts my heart to stop writing.

I've updated the Goodreads Page for Raif's Story with a few spoilers and teasers to let you know what's in the first third of the book. If I can find a new job and a new place to live all in the next 2-3 weeks, I could feasibly get this book done and out the door by September....but these days, that kind of speed on job hunts is rare if not impossible. Companies just don't move quickly anymore, not sure why.

I'll keep at it and once I'm in a nice and easy (not quite but close to "braindead" for me) desk job, I can crank out the rest of this book super fast! The content editing is the biggest time-sink and that's the part that's going so quickly. Having an outline seems to have worked out well for me. I might have to try this again! Who knew? (haha)

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

1400 old words #Snippet from the new #PhoenicianSeries #novel

The following snippet (after the jump-break) was material written in 2008 and posted to Authonomy but removed to be edited then set aside when I focused, instead, on completing Conditioned Response. Raif is such a great character. I'm loving writing his book and I do love reading my own work. I hope you do, too.

These 1400 or so words fall at the beginning of a new chapter near the beginning of the book, right after Dramond and Raif and the rest of Dramond's Proctor team have returned from "collecting" Shayla (she's only 14 years old back then, remember) and she is the "prisoner." During the excursion to get her, a greenhorn Proctor was killed. This is the aftermath.

Meet CADMUS, The Elder...but how old is he?? #PhoenicianSeries #Raif

So I've been writing again, just a little and in both Book 1 and Book 3. It's been hard to choose! I wish I could just write both of them all at once and not have to deal with real life at all until they're done. Alas, real life doesn't really work that way.

What I have done is come up with a scene in Book 1 where Raif has just brought Shayla back from the World Council to Phoenician land.  A lot of people died to get her out of there and back "where she belongs" so Raif is definitely not inclined to just turn around and bring her home with him again. He planned on dropping her off and having her people be glad to get her back among them...but Cadmus has other plans. Cadmus has The Plan. It is his plan given as he is the Elder and makes The Plan(s).

So just who is this Cadmus-the-Elder guy? Well, funny thing is he might be older than "Elder" suggests! Check out some of these references--and remember, in my far-future books in The Phoenician Series, the Phoenicians are not necessarily from Earth but "obviously" share some DNA with humans...they practically *are* human....aren't they? heh heh heh :)

Cadmus - the original Greek Myth

Cadmus - alternate backstory from WikiPedia

Signed Copy of eBook? Check! Coming right up!

As you may have heard, I signed up to give away a free copy of Conditioned Response during the launch party for Cambria Hebert's new paranormal Charade this coming Friday, June 1st.

Now it's one thing to agree to give away a free copy of an eBook. Smashwords makes that super-easy with their instant coupons you can generate at will. But note, I said signed copy, as in personally autographed for the winner.

Tah-dah!

I just did a test run using an ePub format book (imported an ePub file, replaced the cover with the signed image, exported a new ePub file) and it worked! Now i just need the winner to tell me what format they want (I can do Kindle/Mobi too) and how they want it signed and we'll be good to go. I also need to practice a little with a nicer pen tool than the shaky pencil one I used here but I'm so excited! Gonna have to blog how I did this...under another name *haha*

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Friday on Friday - Author Interview of @phoenicianbooks by @Cassie639 http://ow.ly/b97zx it's #fridayreads #indie

Cassie McCown (who was one of my fine editors for Conditioned Response) has posted an amazing, in-depth interview of mois. I can't believe she gave me so much screen real estate! Thank you, Cassie!

Click through here to read more about Friday (since today is Friday ;-) You may be surprised at some of the things I reveal about myself!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Friday

GIVEAWAY: Win a free, autographed* copy of Conditioned Response!

I've been invited to participate in Cambria Hebert's launch party for her new paranormal CHARADE. She'll be having giveaways from over 40 authors on her Facebook Page on Friday, June 1, 2012 from 3pm to 9pm Eastern Time (USA). I'll give away a free, autographed* copy of CONDITIONED RESPONSE.



I hope you'll join us.

-Friday

*In order to autograph the book, I'll need to send the winner the autographed book in their preferred format (any format currently offered at Smashwords) via email.

To Auto-Follow or Not To Auto-Follow? That is My Question; What's UR Answer? #TweetAdder #twitter #autofollowers

Seriously, now that I've got the system down for scheduling 3 days of promo tweets at a time, I'm considering that I should finally start using the auto-follower (TweetAdder) that I bought last winter. The thing is, it's indiscriminate about following back. It'll follow back everyone or no one. I can't say, only follow back the people I like. ;-)

The downside of using TweetAdder is going to be the noise in my stream will make it harder and harder for me to actually have conversations with anyone. Currently, I faithfully check my @ interactions so I see when I'm RT'd or Favorited or when someone is actually speaking directly to me. I still never think to check DMs (sorry if you've DM'd me and wonder why I'm not replying; just @ mention me in public instead and you'll get a reply right away, I promise!) If I use the auto-follower, I'll up my numbers (quantity) and lose massive amounts of quality. I suppose I can always try it and then change my mind later? Let's see what happens for a week or two, yes? No? What do you think?

TweetAdder's kind of a hard program to learn because the documentation is so badly-written and the GUI so UNintuitive but it's not a very complex program. It certainly shouldn't be this hard to master given how simplistic its functions are! Are you using TweetAdder yourself? If so, what cautionary tales of advice can you offer me?

-Friday
(May, 2012 - BTA - Before TweetAdder -grin-)